COMMON QUESTIONS OF GO-GETTERS:

“I’m so motivated to reach my potential. How can I be even better than I am today?”

“Am I reaching a dead end at this company?”

“Am I good enough to get as far as I want to go?”

“Does my boss support me and my advancement in the conversations that matter?”

“Why is my colleague getting that promotion instead of me? My numbers were better last quarter, and I have cooler ties.”

“What else can I learn? If I’m not learning I feel like I’m withering.”

MEET CAMERON.

How do I get ahead at work? I’m hungry for more — responsibility, direct reports, promotions, pay, all of it — and I’m getting impatient that I’m not progressing fast enough.

SITUATION:

Ambitious and bright high-potential-worker-bee, wanting to grow and advance as soon as humanly possible.

CURRENT JOB:

Business Unit Leader at a food service distribution organization; three years since starting at company.

COACH’S NOTES:

Cameron was motivated to reach new heights, both personally and professionally. We learned through his Discovery process that his top values were ambition, innovation and success, and his company’s culture revolved more around tradition and consistency than exponential growth and results. While Cameron wasn’t the ‘slow and steady wins the race’ kind of guy, he did discover that he had a worthwhile succession path at his current company.

We completed several personality assessments and a 360° feedback exercise and identified Cameron’s strengths and areas of improvement. He was able to analyze the personality nuances of his boss, peers, spouse and family members and find a way to understand their perspectives while adjusting his own behaviors to allow for the most effective interactions.

Cameron’s personalized development plan entailed a series of experiences designed to help him identify his desired career path, articulate his desires in an effective manner (to his boss and HR leaders), interact effectively with the slower-paced personalities around him, and create a growth plan centered around cross-training with different departments in his office. This plan included taking on new responsibilities to demonstrate his value, creating stretch assignments with his boss, and mentoring a small group of interns to gain experience as a leader.

Two of Cameron’s personal goals were to become more patient and a better listener, so we developed a series of experiences designed to put him to the test (like spending time talking with very relaxed seniors at his grandfather’s retirement home) and ultimately to develop the skills and habits for him to slow down and listen. Cameron was also tasked with developing and leading an Effective Communication workshop at his office. While a tad ironic, there was no better way for Cameron to be held accountable and master the topic of listening than to research it and teach others how to do it effectively.

We tweaked Cameron’s plan halfway through our program together as he gained more support from his boss (after proclaiming his intentions to grow and take his department to the next level). He prioritized the aspect of gaining more leadership experience based on feedback from his boss. We focused his plan on becoming a better leader with readings, movies and exercises (like surveying 100 people on their most admired leadership quality).

Cameron’s final Happy Spectacular Work + Life Plan covered his current development plan along with his 1, 3, and 5-year plans and a prominent list of his values to help anchor his decisions along the way.